ATTEMPTING TO VEGANISE MY MAKEUP ROUTINE

behalf, alongside their ingredient suppliers, NYX cosmetics is not an entirely vegan brand.

According to Ethical Elephant, NYX cosmetics itself is cruelty-free, but is owned by household name L’Oreal, a parent company that isn’t.

So, whilst brands like NYX may state on the label that they are animal and environmentally conscious, this might not always be the full truth.

So what is vegan and cruelty-free makeup?

Most drugstore makeup brands in 2023 still participate in animal testing, including wellknown brands such as Revlon, Maybelline and Neutrogena. Vegan makeup, in a similar vein, does not contain any animal by-products, with the most common ingredients being carmine (the crushed bodies of insects to make red pigment), beeswax and animal-based glycerin.

However, there is technically no legal definition for the label ‘cruelty-free’, leading this term to be used to mean different things to different brands. Similarly, if a brand sells products in China, it is immediately classed as non-cruelty-free due to China legally requiring animal testing for most cosmetics.

NYX, however, is PETA certified, meaning that it has been acknowledged by the charity as a cruelty-free brand, but the debate remains: is a brand truly cruelty-free and vegan if their parent company isn’t?

This mostly comes down to personal choice. I do not use any L’Oreal products (goodbye to my favourite Paradise mascara!), and exclusively purchase NYX’s vegan products, but I still feel like I could be doing more.

As someone who dyes their hair every six weeks, I have to wonder: is my dye vegan? Has it been tested on animals?

What about the clothing I wear? The skin care I use? My makeup wipes that are, admittedly, not very environmen tally conscious?

Ensuring that the products you use and consume are crueltyfree and environmentally friendly can be quite difficult, especially in the capitalistic world we live in that encourages both brand loyalty and the continuous promotion of upcoming products.

But in a society that is making steps towards environmental conservation, working towards